gorman8621 wrote:I'd much rather put my trust in someone who isn't Marte/Encarnacion. Why are either being discussed? The point is to get an improvement...not to have the same crap.

Why are either being discussed? Because there aren't really any better viable options. Atkins is no better than Encarnacion IMO. Plus it'll take a lot to get him. Uggla and Roberts both will command a TON. Beltre is super expensive. Same with Hudson, Furcal, and O. Cabrera on the free agent market.

Who do you want at 3B or 2B next year?

I think it's very possible to see a platoon of Russell Branyan and Andy Marte at 3B next year.....hoping it doesn't happen....but would be very cheap and allow us to splurge a bit on pitching.....

Hermie13 wrote:I think it's very possible to see a platoon of Russell Branyan and Andy Marte at 3B next year.....hoping it doesn't happen....but would be very cheap and allow us to splurge a bit on pitching.....

On paper (which I know means absolutely nothing) it actually looks halfway decent though. Branyan against righties in 2008 hit .280 with a .377 OBP and 1.029 OPS along with 12 HRs in 50 games (OPS against lefties was .000). Marte against lefties hit .293 with a .379 OBP and .827 OPS in 34 games (OPS against righties was .499).

Yeah, very small samples sizes.....but long offseason and gotta play with some numbers, lol

And Shapiro has traded for/signed Branyan twice already since taking over as the Tribe's GM.....including most recently in 2007....

For what they would produce (given their road splits + move to the AL) we would be just as well off giving up nothing and sticking with Marte.

I would love to see what San Diego wants for Headley, we have a glut of young OF to give up in return.

Gotta disagree here. Marte is pitiful. If we stay with Marte, might as well play Carroll at 3B since he would be just as good (bad). Even with the aforementioned road splits for Atkins he is 10 times the player Marte is, and would be no worse than what Blake was at 3B.

For what they would produce (given their road splits + move to the AL) we would be just as well off giving up nothing and sticking with Marte.

I would love to see what San Diego wants for Headley, we have a glut of young OF to give up in return.

Gotta disagree here. Marte is pitiful. If we stay with Marte, might as well play Carroll at 3B since he would be just as good (bad). Even with the aforementioned road splits for Atkins he is 10 times the player Marte is, and would be no worse than what Blake was at 3B.

Atkins is below Marte defensively, and his stats away from Coors are only marginally better than Marte's stats across the board. Also, once Marte got regular playing time, he had an OPS of around .670, which bettered Atkins' numbers on the road last season.

He's been declining 3 straight seasons and his defense is abysmal, I feel they would be better off sticking with the young guy in that scenario, the ceiling seems much higher, given the fact we would have to give up prospects for the other guy.

I'm not big on the whole splits debate. I mean, would teams shy away from Sizemore in a trade because he only had a .699 OPS on the road but had a 1.055 OPS at home? And has a piss poor arm defensively to boot? And over the last three years average, Sizemore is 200 points higher at home than away.

Sometimes guys hit better at home than on the road.

Atkins has produced at the major league level. Marte has not. Likely never will. I expect Atkins to produce offensively somewhere around his average year in Colorado, and even though he is a sieve defensively he is one of the better options available to fill that void at 3B in FA/trade. Not saying I endorse him, but that I wouldn't mind him. Especially over Marte who is very over-rated defensively himself. Others I would consider would be Beltre as well in a trade.

Consigliere wrote:I'm not big on the whole splits debate. I mean, would teams shy away from Sizemore in a trade because he only had a .699 OPS on the road but had a 1.055 OPS at home? And has a piss poor arm defensively to boot? And over the last three years average, Sizemore is 200 points higher at home than away.

Sometimes guys hit better at home than on the road.

Atkins has produced at the major league level. Marte has not. Likely never will. I expect Atkins to produce offensively somewhere around his average year in Colorado, and even though he is a sieve defensively he is one of the better options available to fill that void at 3B in FA/trade. Not saying I endorse him, but that I wouldn't mind him. Especially over Marte who is very over-rated defensively himself. Others I would consider would be Beltre as well in a trade.

+1 in a big way. I think the tribe should focus on Beltre and Atkins. Please help the baseball god by not mentioning Marte or Branyan again! He might think you are serious.

gorman8621 wrote:Then you're on drugs...which would also explain why you want Encarnacion

Yeah, i'm nuts to think Shapiro would bring in an aging lefty veteran to platoon.......He'd never do that....o wait....Dellucci and Nixon.....

Yes, you are nuts to think that he would bring in Branyan and keep Marte as a 3B platoon. If you've read their comments on the situation, you would see that. They are looking for a legit option at 3B (an upgrade, look it up), otherwise they'll be moving Peralta there. Your comparison has nothing to do with this situation...it's apples and oranges.

Indians can 'say' they want to upgrade on the IF all they want, but the options are limited and Many teams (with deeper pockets than the Tribe) are looking for IF help.

Tribe may not be able to secure the type of infielder he wants.....it's in fact very likely he won't. He could look at spending the money we have on pitching then and just using stopgaps on the infield. A Marte/Branyan/Carroll combo at 3B won't be ideal by any stretch of the imagination....but could work. The Brewers used a combo of Hall/Branyan/Gamel at 3B last year and managed to get to the playoffs (yeah the rest of the team was solid).

This scenario definately has a shot too if the Tribe adds an OF bat for LF.....which is also unlikely, but possible. There's more options really for that hole then the infield hole.....

Atkins is pretty bad there too though. Most of the options we have are bad defensively. And I'm not really sure if the Reds were really considering moving him to LF, think it was more fan and beat writer speculation than anything.

Only a bit as it's skewed to better lineups. The Reds park is slightly smaller than Progressive Field and the so called 'jet stream' they have only goes out to RF, which doesn't really affect right-handed hitters such as Encarnacion.

I do agree on Atkins....but he's still better than what we currently have.....the price is likely to be too high for him though.